Windmill 'De Hoop en Verwachting', Borssele

'De Hoop en Verwachting' = 'Hope and Expectation'
'Borssele' = 'Bor-sel-luh'

Quite a long name.  Perhaps the expectation was as great as the hope, and maybe even surpassed it.  Hope and expectation of what, I have no idea, but we all have our own versions.  It is 'nice' to hope, but for me this leads too quickly to expectation, which is the surest way to disappointment.  Instead, mindful living from one day to the next, with both feet on the ground.  Happy for every single day that goes well, and for the way AW and I cope on those days that don't go well.

Today was of the former category, very busy and very full.

AW had a bridge tournament which lasted the whole afternoon.  He and Beau finished in sixth place.  Not bad, but could have been much better.

At 13.00+, drove to Steenbergen -- had an appointment with a genealogy enthusiast and local folklore hobbyist.  I brought my 785-page book with me in case I could help him.  To make it short, he wants to construct about a thousand family trees, all of which are connected to the ancestry of his grandchildren.  He has a website with all of the info he has gathered so far.  He collects info by digging into completed genealogies, made by other people, supplemented by his own research.  While I understood / understand his driving motivation, I did not agree to lend him my own book, explaining that I myself no longer had a digital copy of it (it was made with Works last century).  However, if he had any questions about specific people, I might be able to help him out.  He admired my book and wanted so dearly to have it but I stood my ground.  On his website, he can put anything he wants up to the point where the Privacy Act is applicable (e.g. 100 years ago for a birth).  As I have a lot of 'newer' information, he will not be able to post this online anyway.  I explained as well that the beauty of a book is that the Privacy Act will not be violated.  It's not accessible to the general public at the click of a link, and one will have to either ask me personally for info or go to the archives where my books will be donated, when I'm done with them and when I've decided which archives to give them to.

I thought for a while that perhaps all the info I got from the central genealogy bureau could go to him as I was done with them anyway, but when I asked AW later in the evening, he said 'no'.  We paid for all of that, and that info is private for some people as of this time.  Anyway, I will help him out when I have time, and maybe there will be some information he could help me out with, but we'll see.  I'm not so sure I want to be too involved with his project.  I'm working through three pedigrees, he's doing half the province.  A bit megalomanic, if you ask me.

As I was already in Steenbergen, and our meeting lasted only a little more than an hour, and the weather was fabulous, and AW was surely not yet done, I thought I'd go hunting.  'Hope and Expectation' is one of the prettiest windmills I have ever seen.  Borssele is also the location of one of our nuclear plants, and the arguments on whether to shut it down or keep it in operation or hold it on standby have been going on for years.  Now that fuel prices have gone up, it might have a role to play, still.  Indeed, hope and expectation for the people working there.

The beach at Borssele also happens to be AW's 'favourite', even though he hasn't visited it for years.  Maybe one day we will take a walk there again and look for shark fossils the way we used to.

Weekend over... it was full and went way too fast.  That said, the work week will be over just as quickly.  Till Friday evening, the Viking and Doña had been busy mailing and plying me with questions.  Looks like a busy week ahead.